Welcome to the new blog!
The old blog.themattdgreen.com was built using a program called Jekyll- basically meaning that any changes needed to be made by editing lines and lines of code. What Jekyll lacks in user friendliness it makes up with speed. Jekyll is one of my favorite pieces of software because of its value as a learning tool. Creating two sites in Jekyll taught me basic HTML, CSS, Ruby, and Git skills. However, I found that I had to go through a lengthy process to add a new post.
This site is built using WordPress, probably the longest surviving web software. What WordPress lacks in speed it makes up with extensibility and ease of use. Instead of editing a text file, committing the file to the repository, then visiting the hosting provider to see the result of my changes. WordPress allows changes to be made instantly in the Customizer or with Gutenberg blocks.
The fundamental difference between Jekyll and WordPress is fairly simple. Jekyll’s final result is compiled when changes are made. When a user visits the site, the server simply provides those files to the user’s device. WordPress works entirely differently. When the user visits the site, the server dynamically builds the site and sends the files on their way. WordPress also has the benefit of being database driven- allowing for amazing categorization of posts and even e-commerce systems. I plan to migrate my current page on themattdgreen.com to WordPress.
Long story short, WordPress is a little slower but much more flexible. I’ve discovered a few methods to enhance WordPress performance- hopefully this page wasn’t too slow for you to load. 🙂
I’ll leave the Jekyll blog running at oldblog.themattdgreen.com for archival purposes.
Let me know below what you think of the new site! Thanks for visiting!
